


they don't know ('bout me and you)

by jdphoenix



Category: Sky High (2005)
Genre: College, F/M, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-25 07:41:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22312540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jdphoenix/pseuds/jdphoenix
Summary: High school's over and they're all going their separate ways. But first, one last mission: dropping Layla and Magenta off at college.
Relationships: Ethan & Magenta & Warren Peace & Will Stronghold & Layla Williams & Zach, Warren Peace & Will Stronghold, Warren Peace/Layla Williams
Comments: 3
Kudos: 75





	they don't know ('bout me and you)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SafelyCapricious](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SafelyCapricious/gifts).



> I wrote this for safelycapricious, who is the bestest best. This is far less than you deserve but I still hope you like it, hon. <3
> 
> Title from Kanye's "Heartless"
> 
> Warning: swears. (I couldn't bring myself to give it a full T rating but it should really be K+)

“I’m just saying, if I had to-” Will casually juggles two boxes of books between his hands- “I could do all this myself.”

“Yeah, but this is, like, our last group bonding activity,” Zach says. “Who knows when we’ll see each other again?”

“Ex _cuse_ me?” Magenta asks. The animal fury in her eyes is no less terrifying for the stature of the animal it comes from.

“I only mean you girls are going to school out here! And Will’s got the superfam thing going with his parents. And Ethan’s got that internship in freaking _Japan_. And I’m going out for the Knights so everyone’s kinda going all over the place after this.”

One purple fingernail presses into Zach’s chest. “And did you or did you not get an invisible jet as a graduation gift?”

“Yes?”

“Then what’s to stop you from flying across the ocean to visit your girlfriend?”

“Um-”

“Let it go, man,” Ethan says. “You’re not winning this one.”

A loud _rustle-BANG_ cuts into the conversation and Will has to lunge to catch one of the boxes before it can slam down into the ground.

Layla strokes the trunk of the oak as she and Warren pass, silently thanking it for batting the box out of the air. “I _told_ you guys, no super shenanigans. We’re trying to be _normal_ here.”

While she reaches deep into the van for one of the few remaining boxes, Magenta points to her back, her meaning clear. _Layla_ is trying to be normal. Magenta is personally expecting college to be just as eventful as high school (the group of them is 5-0 in supervillain showdowns by now, no reason to expect that’d slow down just because they’re all legal adults) and will take things as they come.

The double edged sword of having a large group of friends to help with the move is that they make quick work of it—too quick. After one more trip up and back, there are too few boxes for the lot of them. Warren—after piling his box on top of Will’s instead of giving it to the empty-handed Layla—volunteers to move the van from the curb to the parking structure, allowing some other incoming freshman to take the primo unloading spot. After watching him pull away, the others head up, each moving a little slower now the end is in sight.

“This is really it,” Will says as Layla takes Warren’s box so he can safely drop the other near the door.

“You guys don’t have to leave right away,” Layla says, looking to Magenta for support. They’re both eager to get to decorating their own, private, adult-free space, but … it’s too soon.

“Yeah.” Magenta grabs Zach’s hand and falls back on her bare mattress with him. “No one said we had to wait until we’re unpacked to have our first college hangout.”

Ethan, always easy to please, finds a bean bag neither girl can remember packing and settles himself comfortably in it. Layla pulls out the desk chair and turns it around, motioning for Will to take it. When he does, some measure of tension goes out of the room.

Not that it was ever really in doubt whether he’d stay with the rest of them, but there’s always been a little weirdness, ever since the Year of Two Supervillains (aka junior year). At that point, it seemed like Will and Layla were gonna last 4ever; no one saw the break-up coming. And then the rebound with Warren…

Will’s a hero to his core though and he handled the whole shake up better than most seventeen year-olds would have. He chose to be happy for his two best friends and put any negative emotions he might’ve been feeling at the time to good use fighting Scream Queen at prom.

Still, he’s as aware of the awkward as anyone else and braces himself for Warren’s return when he’ll have to be inconspicuous about not looking at his ex and his best friend cuddling up on her bed.

An uncomfortable silence settles on the group, no one quite sure what to say that isn’t goodbye.

“How’s the jet?” Ethan asks.

“Good, good.” Magenta’s got her head tucked under Zach’s chin and he’s playing with her hair. “I was thinking about modifying it to be safe for outer space. You know, in case aliens ever attack again.”

“Can it break atmo?” Will asks, but the question is swallowed up by a louder voice.

“I don’t believe it!” In the doorway stands a smiling, well, grown-up. He’s definitely a student—the school sweatshirt he’s wearing is proof enough of that—but he’s got that put-together, life-in-order vibe that still seems impossible to achieve for the new high school grads.

But that vibe doesn’t come with manners because he steps into the room without being invited, earning himself one of Magenta’s death glares.

“I heard there was a new super on campus, no one told me it was _Will Stronghold_.” He holds out his hand and Will, with a familiar look of discomfort, shakes it.

“Ah, actually, I’m just helping with the move.” He points with his thumbs to either side. “They’re your new supers.”

“Thanks,” Layla says dryly.

“You’re the one who asked a tree to _move_.”

“He’s got a point,” Zach says and earns himself an elbow in the ribs for it.

The new guy, who still has yet to introduce himself, looks around as if he hadn’t yet noticed the rest of them. He has no way of knowing it, but every one of them is suddenly hit with Gwen flashbacks and, subsequently, supervillain vibes. Ethan’s already sizing the guy up for weaknesses in case they have to come back here and help the girls put an end to his villainy.

The guy recovers with a smile. “Sorry. It’s just that no one told me we had _any_ incoming supers until someone said they saw a guy lifting a car on the front lawn.”

“It was just a couple boxes!” Will says, dodging from the smack he expects from Layla. It doesn’t come and the move puts him in reaching distance of her snapdragon. There’s a reason they have that name; he rubs his sore ear.

“At any rate, welcome. I usually have a basket when I do this but-”

“Who are you?” Layla asks.

“Oh! Trey Cooper. I’m president of our super club.”

 _Trey Cooper?_ Magenta mouths to Zach.

 _Super club?_ Zach mouths to Magenta.

Trey points to a gold pin in the shape of an X on his chest. “We tell the normies we’re really into extreme sports, but we’re really here to support the supers on campus.”

“Well, that sounds … great, but we’re not really interested in being ‘supers on campus,’” Layla says.

“Yeah, we did that for four years,” Magenta adds. “It’s old.”

“At Sky High?” Trey looks amused. “This isn’t about studying and exams. This is about real world, hands on super work. And bake sales, but mostly the super stuff. Our members get real experience fighting supervillains, experience they can use to get internships with grade-A heroes. Or even hero gigs of their own, straight out of school.”

After a few exchanged looks and uncertain silence, Zach pipes up, “Yeahhhh, if you join up with this guy, you guys could fight _real supervillains_.”

Laughter erupts.

Supervillain vibes aside, Layla feels a touch of sympathy for Trey. He has no idea what he’s just walked into.

“It’s nothing personal,” she says, walking him to the door, “we’re just not interested. We want to have a _normal_ college experience.”

“Normal?” he echoes, looking around at them all like he’s expecting them to reveal _that_ was the joke.

“Yep,” Magenta says. “You have fun with your club though.”

“But-”

“We’ll see you around.” Layla closes the door in his face.

When she turns back to face the rest of them, more laughter erupts. Every time one of them tries to talk, bringing up the pin or the real supervillains or _Trey Cooper_ , it only makes it worse. Ethan liquefies at least twice. Zach tells them all to stop—even though he’s the one who brought up the super club—or he’ll pee himself. Magenta pushes him off the bed. And then they’re only laughing more and both girls are soon on the floor as well.

“What are you guys doing?”

“Warren!” Layla uses Will’s shoulder for leverage and stands to hug him. “You missed it!”

She plants a quick peck on his lips and her smile immediately falls. Warren’s mad.

He’s better than he used to be—smiles more, laughs more—or maybe it’s just that he only ever does that with people he’s close to. So it’s not really strange that he’s wearing his surly antihero face when he first walks in. What’s strange is that it hasn’t faded, that his shoulders are tense where Layla clings to them, and his hand on her back is tighter than it is supportive.

“What happened?” she asks.

The laughter fades, the others immediately picking up on her tone.

“Nothing.” He moves around her and gives Ethan a hand up.

“No, something happened. What is it, Warren?”

Will holds his hand out for a hand up and Warren gives his without hesitation. Maybe a little of that is so he doesn’t have to face his unhappy girlfriend right away. “It’s not a big deal, okay?”

Will doesn’t let go of Warren’s hand. “You know how this goes,” he says, tightening his grip.

“So do you.” Warren lets his palm heat up, just a little.

“Guys,” Magenta says, “no fights in our new room. You take that shit outside.”

“She means no fights, period,” Zach says. “Just tell us what’s up, man. You know it’s gonna come out eventually. Remember sophomore year?”

Everyone groans at the reminder. There’s a reason truth serums have been outlawed by the UN.

“Fine.” Warren tears his hand away from Will’s. “I got recognized outside. No big deal.”

“Recognized, like, from school?” Magenta asks carefully.

“Recognized like my dad’s kid.”

This isn’t an unheard of event. People recognize Warren as a legacy all the time. Sometimes for his dad, sometimes for his mom, sometimes for both. But when it’s just for his dad, there are a whole lot of emotions that go through the group. Some sadness for Warren having to deal with this nonsense again, some guilt for those first few months when they all thought he was a bad guy, and always at least a little bit of-

“What did they say?” Will asks, looking every inch the Commander’s son.

But no son of Baron Battle is ever gonna be cowed by the Commander’s kid. “It doesn’t matter, the usual shit, I’m _fine_.”

“So he called you a villain and threatened you.”

Warren doesn’t deny it.

“What did he look like?”

“Let it go, Stronghold.” Warren barrels past him and plops himself down on the desk chair, arms crossed and gaze fixed firmly on the wall.

The move turns Will’s attention to the window. “Is that him?” he asks. Trey’s outside the dorm, talking to a group of guys and gesturing towards the building doors in a definite _I saw a supervillain_ way.

“Could be,” Warren says, not bothering to look.

“Was he wearing a school sweater?”

“Him and half the guys running around this place. It doesn’t matter.”

“With an X pin?”

Warren’s expression goes carefully still. Too carefully.

“I’m gonna put him on the roof.” Will makes for the door and finds it slammed in his face by a burst of superheated air.

“Like hell you are. I don’t need you fighting my battles, Stronghold, I never did.”

“I’m not trying to fight your battles. I am _trying_ to be your _friend_.”

Warren keeps going like he didn’t even hear him. “And this isn’t even a battle, it’s just some entitled prick who thinks he’s better than me because my daddy’s in prison. He’s not the first and he won’t be the las-”

A blood-curdling scream fills the room. Hero instinct has everyone rushing to the window to see Trey, his eyes bulging out of his tomato red face, dangling by his underwear from one dainty branch of the oak on the front lawn.

One by one, all eyes turn to Layla.

“No one calls my boyfriend a villain.”

Not for the first time in their relationship, Warren gets what his mom saw in his dad.

Zach throws his arms out, tugging Warren close on one side and Magenta on the other. “I am so glad we stayed to hang out.”


End file.
